Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ThingsComeAround]

Reaching out to whoever has heard of this..

A few weeks ago I recall being at a bar when one of my friends mentioned a GEPIK coordinator gave notice that there were massive budget cuts, and all schools in Goyang with more than one teacher would lose half of their budget.

Didn't hear much about it since then, until yesterday.

Apparently they want to slash the number of NETs in Goyang down to 20 for all elementary schools, as there isn't a budget for English like there was 2/3 years ago.

For all the nay-sayers that will claim this is a bluff, that they will not 'fire' us, that isn't what they are doing. Instead they will phase us out and not renew our contracts. In doing that, they can tell the moms anything they want.

Has anyone else heard of this? I know I only mentioned Goyang but are there other cities that are also affected?

[lowpo]

[jvalmer]

Back to the good ole' days of going to multiple schools.

[Fishead soup]

This sounds like scaremongering to me. I can still remember when people were predicting that Chinese would triumph over English as the language of buisness and we would be out of a job overnight.

Re-training the KET's to teach using a more progressive approach is a massive waste of time and money. They have month long programs in Pyeongteck. They house and feed and train the teacher trainees for a month, and they come back to their schools and teach using the same old grammar Translation approach. They have been running these things for over ten years. There's a lady who works in my school who's been on more than one oversea's programs. When I walk next to her classroom the only time I hear the target language is when the CD Rom is playing.

[3DR]

I have a friend who has also told me this...she's in Uijeongbu.

[lowpo]

[bobbybigfoot]

If schools really wanted to make a difference, they would start providing incentives for native teachers to learn Korean.

[inkoreaforgood]

We've been hearing about the possibility of fewer NETs in the schools here for a few years. Some major issues have always been the Korean teachers, their lack of training in dealing with any issues with NETs, and the fact that the Korean teachers have very poor english themselves. All this combines into a "blame the foreign teacher" approach, and a call from many Korean teachers to remove the NETs altogether.

Most of these public school jobs won't exist in 2-3 years, simply because the NETs are not supported by the Board of Education, the school, or their co-workers. The NETs have no voice at all in any aspect of their position at the schools they work at. They don't belong in the unions, and they have no pull with any of the authorities in question. The result is inevitable.

[Ramen]

[ticktocktocktick]

My c/t just told me this is happening at my school in Gunpo, where most schools have 2 teachers. From what she said, I think it might be all the schools in this city.

[randall020105]

in korea 4 gud touches on a vital point right there...
analysing and pondering further results in me wondering how feasible unionising this whole thing(NET's) may be. what stops us from forming a union and once again putting the ball in our court. what are the thoughts around that?
look ... i'm shaking a cold and just thinking here... so feel free to wise-crack my response... humbug!!

R.

[jrwhite82]

.

[Lexiloo555]

I recently asked about this and my co-teacher said that there are 73 GEPIK NETs in Pyeongtaek area schools (where I currently live) and out of those 73, 17 will be let go at the end of their contracts. I am relatively safe due to the fact that my school is very rural and they already cut their afterschool NET (therefore eliminating 2 NETs in one school) shortly after I arrived. That is the only information I have received thus far, hope that helps in some way? Also, it may be beneficial to ask your co-teacher because from what I have heard from other NETs in my area all of the co-teachers got some sort of letter from GEPIK with a magical list of what schools would receive cut funding and therefore no NET funding for next year!

[22tea77]

[TheUrbanMyth]